Response to A City for All Londoners

ICE London has provided feedback on Sadiq Khan's first strategy document since his election in May.

A City for All Londoners is the Mayor's statement of ambition, covering policies in the areas of transport, housing, business and the environment. The document is the first step in a two year review of the London Plan, the Mayor's spatial strategy for the Capital as well as his transport and environmental strategies.

The response backs a number of the measures proposed by the Mayor, but also calls for greater action on surface water flooding, improving energy efficiency & generation and shifting towards a circular economy.

A summary of each section of the document is provided below:

Section

Comments

1. Accommodating Growth

ICE London supports the concepts of 'Good Growth' & 'Healthy Streets', but infrastructure investment must be at the heart of these proposals. The Mayor should seek to get the maximum benefit from planned transport projects whilst considering how we can use our current assets better. Water security must be considered as a constraint on growth.

2. Housing

ICE London supports the drive for genuinely affordable housing. The use of underutilised TfL land is welcomed. The Mayor must also ensure TfL is able to use this land to generate funding to maintain its assets and to invest in new transport upgrades.

3. Economy

ICE London supports the proposals to increase the uptake of STEM. We support new technologies like smart cities and driverless cars.

4. Environment, Transport and Public Space

ICE London supports the shift to a circular economy, but this must be embedded throughout all Mayoral policies. We support the proposals on air quality and to make London a zero carbon city by 2050 and will work with the Mayor to achieve these two targets. Flooding is not covered enough in the document, particularly surface water flooding which could benefit from the increased roll out of sustainable drainage. Waste harmonisation should also be encouraged by the Mayor.

5. A City for All Londoners

ICE London supports embedding fairness and equality into all policies for London and will strive to make the civil engineering and built environment sector more diverse and reflective of society.